Arts & Culture News (43)

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Luminoso Piano Quartet will present AN AFTERNOON OF CHAMBER MUSIC: Piano Quartet, with music by Handel, Widor, Dvorak and more, on Sunday, May 20, 2018 at 2:00 pm at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, located at 403 W. Hillcrest Dr. in Thousand Oaks. The afternoon features classical favorites performed in an intimate setting. A concert in the Large Rehearsal Room is like attending a concert in the Château de Versailles in Paris! (Well, it has mirrors and is about the same size, less the artwork and history, but you can just close your eyes and imagine you are there!) The Luminoso Piano Quartet features Araksia Nazlikyan, Violin; Diana Ray-Goodman, Violin & Viola; Jan Kelley, Cello; and Ornela Ervin, Piano.

There's nothing like a death in the family to bring out the worst in us. In Joshua Harmon’s biting comedy, a beloved grandfather has died and a treasured family heirloom with religious significance is up for grabs — but who’s the most deserving? Is it bossy, overbearing, self-declared “super-Jew” Daphna Feygenbaum (played by Larkin Bell – Colony Collapse at Boston Court)? Or her wealthy, less observant cousin Liam (Noah James – Stanley Jerome in the Odyssey’s Broadway Bound) who has a shiksa girlfriend (Lila Hood – The Man Who Came to Dinner at Actors Co-Op)? Meanwhile, Liam’s younger brother Jonah (Austin Rogers – White Marriage at the Odyssey) finds himself in the impossible position of peacemaker as the two rivals argue, insult and try to outwit each other to the bitter, hilarious end.

Set in 1930s Chicago, where opportunities for African-American men are elusive, Kelley’s adaptation focuses on the inner workings of the protagonist’s mind as a series of unleashed events violently and irrevocably seal his fate.

March 13, 2018…Santa Barbara, CA…ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY (in a co-production with the ENGLISH THEATRE FRANKFURT) is thrilled to announce the fourth show of its 2017-2018 Season, a witty and provocative new thriller, THE INVISIBLE HAND, written by Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced) and directed by Jonathan Fox. THE INVISIBLE HAND begins previews on Thursday, April 12, opens on Saturday, April 14, and runs through Sunday, April 29, 2018 at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria Street in Santa Barbara. The production will then transfer to the English Theatre Frankfurt on May 9, 2018.

Following 3-week limited engagement, production will re-open this summer and again in fall, each time with a different cast

LOS ANGELES (March 12, 2018) — Brooding, compelling, funny and startling. Memories unravel and dark truths are revealed in a haunting ghost story by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater’s Daniel Talbott (Slipping). Chris Fields directs the West Coast premiere of What Happened When for The Echo Theater Company, opening at Atwater Village Theatre on April 12. Following the production’s three-week run through April 26, What Happened When will re-open this summer and again in the fall, each time with a different cast.

Ventura, CA – Ventura Education Partnership will present the 17th Annual Festival of Talent: “Walking on Sunshine” on Saturday March 24, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. The performance is open to the public and showcases the amazing talent of Ventura Unified School District students, staff and family members. ,Brian McDonald, Rubicon Theatre Company Associate Artistic Director, will direct the show for his tenth and final year.

Ashlynn Vaglica of Ventura High sings ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’ backed up by the Harmonix

Soprano Hannah Rose Kidwell and pianist Christina Giuca will perform in recital on tour in March 2018 in Houston, Santa Barbara, Chicago, and New York City

Santa Barbara, CA — The Music Academy of the West proudly hosts the nation’s premiere annual competition for song recitals, the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. Academy fellows have competed annually since 1997. This year, the competitors performed for a panel of esteemed judges – Marilyn Horne, Renée Fleming, and Jake Heggie. The 2017 winners of the Competition, soprano Hannah Rose Kidwell and pianist Christina Giuca, will perform a program including the world premiere of a song cycle written by Jake Heggie, who was a guest composer at the Music Academy this summer.

LOS ANGELES, Calif.— Accomplished actress Lois Robbins takes us on a poignant and comic journey as one woman explores her sexual history, in what ultimately becomes her coming of age story,L.O.V.E.R. Directed by Sonia Sebastian, L.O.V.E.R. opens on April 13, running through May 12 at the Zephyr Theatre on Melrose Avenue.

L.O.V.E.R. is a riff on childhood, adolescents and finally adulthood from a grown-up woman’s point of view. Robbins’ one-act comic play first workshopped in June 2017 at The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls, NY.

As the Choral Society turns 70 and Conductor JoAnne Wasserman takes the podium in her 25th season, she's programmed a 70th Anniversary Concert repertoire that features a work never yet performed during her tenure and spans the choral cannon from the classical to the modern, reflective of the uninterrupted journey from the venerable chorus’s inception just post WWII to today.

State Street Ballet, Santa Barbara’s 23-year-old ballet company, begins 2018 with exciting changes and confident new steps toward the future. Founder, Executive and Artistic Director Rodney Gustafson has named Resident Choreographer William Soleau as Co-artistic Director, creating a new partnership that will propel the already acclaimed company to new heights.